Ten From Infinity

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Ten From Infinity, by Paul W. Fairman

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Title: Ten From Infinity
Author: Paul W. Fairman
Release Date: March 20, 2007 [EBook #20856]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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SOMETHING WAS WRONG
It began when a pedestrian got hit by a cab in New York City. No doubt it was the only motor mishap in the history of creation that reached out among the stars--for far out in space a signal was registered: Something has gone wrong....
And something had gone wrong, for the doctors discovered their accident patient had two hearts. It was the beginning of the discovery that the Earth had been invaded by 10 such creatures from Outer Space.
Every effort was made to learn their purpose. An orbital flight was launched to spot alien bodies--only to be destroyed in space. One of the alien men was captured--but no threat of pain or death could unlock the secret in his brain.
Something had gone wrong. And somehow, some way had to be found to make it right--before the threat of danger overwhelmed all mankind.
AUTHOR'S PROFILE
Ivar Jorgensen is the pen name of a former topflight magazine editor who is now devoting his full time to free-lance writing.
He was born in St. Louis and spent most of his early years in the Midwest. Before getting into the publishing field he held a number of jobs, including those of elevator operator and theater usher.
Mr. Jorgensen has written numerous science-fiction short stories as well as several contemporary and suspense novels. TEN FROM INFINITY is his first full-length science-fiction novel.
* * * * *
A Science-Fiction Novel
TEN FROM INFINITY
Ivar Jorgensen
Cover Painting by Ralph Brillhart

A Monarch Books Science-Fiction Novel Published in January, 1963 Copyright ? 1963 by Ivar Jorgensen
Monarch Books are published by MONARCH BOOKS, INC., Capital Building, Derby, Connecticut, and represent the works of outstanding novelists and writers of non-fiction especially chosen for their literary merit and reading entertainment.
Printed in the United States of America All Rights Reserved
* * * * *

1
It began when a pedestrian got hit by a cab at the corner of 59th Street and Park Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.A. No doubt it was the first motor mishap in the history of creation that reached out among the stars.
The pedestrian was walking south on Park Avenue, toward Grand Central Station. He was looking at the upper skeleton of the vast new Pan Am Building which blocked out the sky in that direction. But he should have been watching traffic because a yellow cab tagged him neatly and knocked him across the walk into a clump of pigeons that scattered upward in all directions.
The cab driver swore. Citizenry gathered. An alert free-lance news photographer who happened to be passing took the most important shot of his career. After a while, the ambulance came and the dazed pedestrian was pointed toward the nearest emergency ward, which happened to be in the Park Hill Hospital.
The pigeons settled back. The curious went their different ways.
And far out in space, among the yellow pinpoints we call stars, a signal was registered. The signal was of grave import to those who received it.
The signal said, Something has gone wrong.
* * * * *
From the springboard of this incident, there emerged several occurrences of note. The first in sequence took place in the Park Hill Hospital. The time of that particular ambulance's arrival was 11:15 P.M. At that hour the harvest of violence in Manhattan was being delivered to its logical granaries in the form of broken heads, slashed bodies, and dazed, shock-strained eyes. The examining rooms at Park Hill were full, and some cases of lesser import were waiting on stretchers and benches in the corridors.
That was where the pedestrian waited. Unlike others, he was very patient. He seemed to understand that this sort of thing took time; or perhaps he didn't. At any rate, he lay staring up at the ceiling, unmoving, seemingly uncaring, until an intern named Frank Corson stopped beside his stretcher and looked down at him in moody-eyed weariness. Then Corson managed a smile.
"Sorry about the service, mister. Full house tonight."
"That's quite all--right."
Corson touched the broken leg. "I can give you a shot if the pain's hitting too hard."
"It does not--pain."
"Stout fellow." Frank Corson probed with fingers that were growing more expert day by day. "Good clean break. Not swelling, either." He touched the patient's wrist, then put a stethoscope to his chest.
Actually,